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Bolivian President Evo Morales Promotes Quinoa Against Food Crisis

12.06.2012

On Monday, Bolivian President Evo Morales praised the quinoa plant, a neglected mountain crop popular among health-conscious foodies, as a way to help solve the global food crisis. "Faced with the global food crisis, the Andean people have various responses and one of them is quinoa," said Morales during a ceremony held at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) where he was named "ambassador" for quinoa. The nutritional value of this ancestral aliment led FAO led to declare 2013 the International Year of Quinoa to promote the "super grain" as a way of boosting food security, nutrition and poverty eradication. According to official data, Bolivia is the largest producer and exporter of quinoa in the world. Bolivia has had since 2005 about 35,000 acres of quinoa, the Andean "Golden Bean", but the good crop prices rose to 70,000 hectares this year, changing the lives of peasants in the Andes south-east and causing conflicts over land between farmers. In March and April of this year there have been clashes between the farmers, who have left over 30 injured.